


Bruised & Battered

by orphan_account



Series: JayTim Week 2016 Entries [5]
Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics), Teen Titans (Comics)
Genre: Fake names because they are in what is basically witness protection for vigilantes, M/M, Sebastian gets into trouble at school, Soccer dads to the rescue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-07
Updated: 2016-08-07
Packaged: 2018-08-07 07:21:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7705660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Entry #5</p><p>Sebastian gets into trouble at school. </p><p>Check the series for the premise (JayTim Week 2016 Entries).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bruised & Battered

The Benson kid is sitting on a chair in the principal’s office tapping his foot impatiently, and Janice sits outside wondering which of the parents she should call. She is actually staring at the listing for their numbers, dreading the decision more than anything. 

Principal Jean is going to be back in twenty minutes and Janice absolutely needs to call the parents if either of them is to make it before the end of the day. She has to make a quick decision, but it doesn’t come easy. Both of Sebastian’s parents have been to the school previously, and none of the times they’ve been here for this reason have ended well. 

Mr. and Mr. Benson are a delightful couple - Janice has been to enough school functions to know that - but they’re not very nice to have to deal with when their only child is in trouble. Sebastian doesn’t get into trouble a lot, but he has a few visits to this office under his belt. Enough that both Janice and Daniel, the other secretary, know to dread him coming back. 

Ian Benson is a quiet man, a little on the awkward side, but he does great with mingling and arrangements at any and all school functions. He works as the IT guy for the biggest mattress store in town, and once reorganised the file tagging system for the school database at Principal Jean’s request. He is lovely to spend time with and easy on the eyes, if Janice may say so. Both of Sebastian’s fathers are. However, the last time he visited the office on account of his son having broken a blackboard while trying to stop a fight, he turned into an ice cold wall of words that were far too rapidfire for either Principal Jean or Janice to follow properly. Sebastian ended up with less of a punishment than the people who had begun the fight, and Ian ended up giving the principal a formal warning. 

Jean won’t want to see him again, but the alternative is his husband. Felix Benson is as much of a lovely presence as his husband, if a bit more smooth about it in regular out-of-formal contexts. He works at the local auto shop, which gained some traffic from the parents of the school’s kids once he visited his first PTA meeting. The man can both bake like a god and take on Helen - the local PTA bully - in a battle of wills any day. He quickly gained a following. 

The first time Felix visited the office - on account of Sebastian climbing the school roof - he got up in the principal’s personal space and, for lack of a better term, interrogated him until he found out that Sebastian was in fact up there to retrieve a necklace that had been taken from another kid and thrown up there by some bullies. Sebastian got off scot free, having to only apologise for not asking for help instead of doing it himself. 

Principal Jean has come out of several meetings with this family only to chug half of the coffee pot’s worth in order to go on with his day. He won’t be happy to know that this is what awaits him in the afternoon. Janice taps anxious fingers on the catalogue, tries to remember what arbitrary decision songs she knows from childhood. Maybe she can flip a coin. Then something occurs to her.

In most social contexts she has seen them together, they always seem to mellow each other out to an extent. The PTA once invited them both to a bake-sale and found that Helen and Felix found it difficult to fight if Ian was there to mitigate the differences that came up between them. Ian has a standing invitation to PTA events now, but he declines them far too often. He also always refuses the annual invitation to the PTA on their Christmas cards.

Felix was also once invited to the school ball along with his husband, and he managed to stop Ian from verbally skewering a parent for pushing in between a couple of girls who were dancing together. They talked very sternly with her behind closed doors, but Janice is pretty sure that Ian on his own making a scene in front of everyone would have embraced it with open arms. He is a tad theatrical for an IT guy, to be sure. 

Janice knows that this could blow up spectacularly. Then again, it could also make this easier on all of them. She considers the risk worth taking if it means that she won’t have to stay here all evening doing damage control again. 

She dials before she has a chance to change her mind. 

***

Jason stops by the school an hour after he gets off work. He’s just changed, and didn’t have time to shower, so he naturally smells like an oil spill. His hair is a mess and he has spent the whole afternoon debating with a grumpy guy whether his breaks were actually broken. He is not in a good mood. 

It only gets worse when he gets out of the parking lot only to see Tim walking down the sidewalk on the opposite side of the road. He blinks, checks the time on his watch and considers whether he actually hallucinated the call from the school. They only ever call one of them in when Sebastian does something reckless. 

Tim has a similar look of surprise on his face. He crosses the street and walks up to Jason, taking in his disheveled state. He frowns, confused. 

“I take it he blew something up, if we’re both here.” He looks unimpressed. Jason rolls his eyes and slings an arm around Tim’s shoulders. 

“Just you wait. I bet he’s broken someone’s nose. I keep expecting him to use too much force sooner or later.”

“Not funny,” Tim admonishes. Jason slows their stride and presses a kiss to his temple.

“We raised him well. He only ever gets into justifiable trouble. If nothing is blown up or incinerated, I’m sure we can bail him out.”

Tim glares at him. He grasps Jason’s hand over his shoulder, lacing their fingers together. 

“We don’t know we raised him that well if he keeps getting himself into trouble.”

They reach the hallway that contains the offices just as Jason makes a dismissive noise. They stop by the door that connects them. 

“Can’t have it all, can we? We didn’t exactly stay out of trouble either.” He reaches for the door and opens it for Tim with a small bow. “Good sir,” he says, smiling. 

Tim flicks him lightly in the head as he walks past. 

“Let’s just get this over with so we can go home and make dinner.”

Jason can agree with that. 

***

Sebastian’s fathers are a presence of their own when they enter a room together. There’s Felix, who swings the door open and walks in with a charming smile as though he owns the place. His expression is warm and his body language open, to the point where it takes over the room, but there’s a steely quality to his eyes which betrays his irritation at being there in the first place. Janice sits a little straighter when she sees him. 

Then there’s Ian, who follows his partner, posture straight but relaxed. His expression is composed, pleasant in a way that is very placating. He tilts his head and offers Janice a smile which is calculated in how sheepish it is. 

“I hear our little scoundrel is at it again,” Felix jokes. He leans lightly on Janice’s desk, and she feels her breath catch at the sight of him. His hair is delightfully messy, strands stuck haphazardly to his forehead. He smells like oil and dirt, and his tattooed arms are uncovered, fingers resting lightly on her desktop. 

She may be a little bit in love. However, that isn’t the point right now. 

Ian walks up behind him and puts a hand around his waist, almost drawing him back for a moment. The contrast between his crisp appearance and his husband’s makes them an aesthetically pleasing match. His smile becomes more gentle as he looks Janice in the eye. 

“He’s right inside,” Janice says and points. “Principal Jean is expecting you.”

Felix grins, a bright flash, before he pushes of her desk and walks towards the office door behind her. 

“Thanks, Jan.” Ian follows and waves. Janice waves back. 

Felix swings the door open and throws his hands out. “Henry! How lovely to see you again.”

It’s friendly and extravagant, but she can hear the venomous intent behind it. She can also hear principal Jean stutter for a moment. 

“Mr. Benson. Come right in.”

He sounds only mildly surprised. Janice didn’t tell him who she called before the meeting, because there was a lot of rushing around this afternoon. Janice swallows when Ian approaches the door. 

“Sebastian,” Ian says, and Janice feels like that tone is holding her personally accountable.

Principal Jean draws in an audible breath. He was not prepared in the least. There’s the scratching of a chair as Felix sits down, and then Ian is waving goodbye to her through the door. His smirk is insidious. 

The two of them do mellow each other out, but it seems that this time they have decided not to. She may have just doomed their principal to a fate not even Helen could handle.

She waits for them to close the door before hastily sweeping up her papers off the desk and yanking her jacket off the neighboring chair, all the while shooting up out of her own. As quietly as she can, she fishes her phone and keys out of the top desk drawer and heads for the door. She loves the Bensons, but sticking around for this exchange is above her pay grade. 

She only hopes she doesn’t get fired for this. 


End file.
